Town #113: Lebanon

Today we headed out to Lebanon, a town known for its farms. According to the town website there are over 100 active farms in Lebanon today. I haven't been able to track down a list of farms by towns yet, but that might be the most farms in any town in Connecticut.

The farm we chose to visit was Beltane, a goat farm that produces a variety of artisan cheese. The farm has cheese tastings on many Sundays in May, and we were lucky enough to make it to the last one. We fell in love with the farm right away. We walked around the farm a bit and saw some of the goats. Goats happily munched on hay in small pens, and we found a small path with some informational postings about goats and the farm. There is even a nice pond with a swing that couldn't be more picturesque.


We found the cheese tasting room and were invited to try about eight different cheeses. I will say upfront that I am not a fan of goat cheese. I can barely choke it down and will avoid it all costs. So, Bruce was excited while I was dubious. But with a little coaxing I tried one after another and found them to be amazing. If you don't like goat cheese, you should definitely head out to Beltane and sample some of their cheeses. In particular, the chive chevre and the feta were pretty awesome.

All the people we met were friendly and down-to-earth. I can say we had more fun here than at any farm we've visited so far on this project.

Lebanon stats:
Population: 7,358
Size: 55.2 square miles
Villages/Other Communities: Exeter, Goshen Hill, Leonard Bridge, Liberty Hill
Historic Places: Alden Tavern Site, Clark Homestead, Lebanon Green Historic District, John Trumbull Birthplace, War Office, William Williams House

Town #112: Suffield

Suffield is a small town that borders Massachusetts in the north. It has been having a really interesting debate over one of its town buildings for several years, but first a little local geography note.

According to NECTA, Suffield is more closely aligned with Springfield than with Hartford. (If you are not familiar with NECTA, I wrote about it when I visited Enfield).

Suffield was even part of Massachusetts until 1749 when it became part of Connecticut, so it's a town that seems to straddle two places. Recently, I visited Suffield, and I could definitely feel the Massachusetts influence.

When I visited I was immediately taken by the architecture of the Kent Memorial Library. It has a light quality about it, and its the most unique library structure I've discovered in the state. Named after Suffield resident Alfred Kent, the library could easily be confused with the town of Kent's library (with the exact same name).


Architect Warren Platner designed the building and also built such famous spots as the Window on the World in the World Trade Center and Water Tower Place in Chicago. (He designed a regionally famous restaurant in my home state of Missouri as well.)

With such a unique style of architecture and such an interesting history associated with the building you would think some of it would be mentioned on the town's library website, but it's a bit more complicated than that. (All the information I learned about this library came form other websites and talking directly with library staff.)


Back in 2008 talks became serious in the direction of tearing down the building. Why? First, there are space restraints. The way the building was made makes it virtually impossible to make it ADA compliant. It's also a building that didn't take into account that it might need to one day be expanded, and the library happens to need expansion.

Having been there, I can understand why expansion is impossible. There is a brick sidewalk that follows the building around its full length, a busy street and a formal courtyard in the front, a pathway for cars immediately in the back, (not to mention the steep drop off), and massive windows along the sides.

Next, the people who work in the library find the structure inefficient for doing library work. It seems every detail--down to the furniture--was thought out by Platner in this 1970s modern structure, but he didn't know anything about the library field or library work flow, and it never occurred to him that it might be important.


And then there are those who just never liked the way the building turned out and wanted a more traditional structure.

It seems unlikely, at this point, the library will actually be torn down. The town voted against the demolition. But, it's getting close to three years since the vote and residents are becoming a bit impatient. The town has been trying to find something to take over the existing space and has met with those interested in turning the Platner building into a performing arts center. The new library will eventually be built in an alternate location.

Suffield stats:
Population: 14,704
Size: 42.9 square feet
Villages/Other Communities: West Suffield
Historic Places: Babb's Beach, Bridge No. 455, Farmington Canal-New Haven and Northampton Canal, John Fuller House, Gothic Cottage, Hastings Hill Historic District, Hatheway House, Hilltop Farm, King's Field House, Alexander King House, Lewis-Zukowski House, Suffield Historic District

Town revisit: Colchester

We have driven by a certain sign so many times in the last five years and today finally stopped at Priam Vineyards. Considering it is the only vineyard in proximity to where we live (and our love our wine), it's surprising it took us so long to get here. Whatever the reason we stayed away so long, we finally remedied it today.

Priam does not have a long, winding trail through grapevines to finally arrive at the main house. It's not even a short drive really. You turn off the main road, see a small sign on your left, drive past some dirt mounds and then notice the impressive barn-like structure.

The large New England red building where the tastings take place is lovely. On the Priam website the building is not red, but the website photo could have been taken years ago. (In fact, we're starting to get used to vineyard website photos being less than representative). As with our past Connecticut vineyard stops, the parking lot was packed. The small, interior bar area then was not surprisingly wall-to-wall people. We hung out for a while and finally got our chance to taste the wines.

We had noticed in the past that Priam does not put the year on its bottles, so we asked about that. We were told that there is a good deal of expense involved in putting a year on a wine's label. However, the vineyard is looking into a process for stamping the year on a bottle's cork.

The wines we tasted were what you would expect from a Connecticut vineyard. The whites were better than the reds and all were somewhat sweet. We would recommend the Gewurztraminer, a white with grapefruit notes.

The grounds are small. There is a nice back patio area to sit and sip wine. The owners' house can be seen on a hill from the back of the vineyard with the rows of grapes splitting the middle of the landscape. I couldn't help but think the view would be more impressive from the house than from where we were sitting.

The most unique aspect of the vineyard involves its energy use. Priam is the first, and at this writing, only vineyard in Connecticut completely solar powered.

The panels are positioned off to the side of the patio giving an urbane touch to the otherwise rural landscape.
Besides using solar power the vineyard also picks its grapes by hand and and does not use pesticides. We would recommend this vineyard to anyone interested in seeing traditional agriculture meet green farming--and, of course, to anyone interested in just having a nice glass of wine.

Check out our first Colchester visit.